Good Dragon
by Fizzlemcschnizzle
Summary: Hiccup became a hero after riding his Night Fury to end the raids forever. That wasn't enough, though. That didn't put an end to dragon hunters and Hiccup wanted to do something about that.


**A/N:**

After reading VigoBrimborn's one-shot, "Clearly Not a Dragon", I was inspired to write this. By the way, this is totally a non-sequitter and has absolutely no integration with my other stories.

Oh, I almost forgot the obligatory disclaimer. Dreamworks owns HTTYD, not me. However, I do own your left big toe. True story.

* * *

 **Good Dragon**

Thuggory stood at the docks with a frown on his groggy face. The day after his tribe's Thawfest games was a terrible time for guests to arrive. There should be a law against visits to an island after a night of celebratory drinking.

The Hooligan ship slid up and the dockmaster and his aides moored it to the pilings. The gangplank swung down and Stoick took a moment to shake the wobble out of his sea legs before crossing over. Mogadon, chief of the Meathead tribe, took a step in front of his heir - who wasn't trying as hard to school his expression through his hangover - to clasp Stoick's arm in greeting.

"Ah, my dear chief Mogadon!" Stoick bellowed in a voice that would reach across the Archipelago, causing everyone to wince. "It is good to see you again, friend."

Thuggory covered his ears and gripped his head to try to quiet the ringing and steady himself. He made a solemn vow right then and there that, when he became chief, any and all visitors would be turned away the day after a major celebration.

Mogadon's face twitched. "You are a funny man, dragon hoarder, to call me a friend. You keep this up and every man, woman, and child will rally together to beat the dragon-taming secrets out of you and your tribe. You can't keep it all to yourself forever. Not much longer, I reckon."

Stoick smiled, clearly nowhere near as offended or worried as he was supposed to be. It was really a statement of well-known facts, after all. The dragon raids that have been ongoing for centuries had suddenly ceased several months ago, but fishermen and traders would come to port with tales of people riding dragons around Berk. Such a thing was scary at best and cataclysmic at worst. Vikings on dragonback could fly right over defenses or swoop out of the dark sky and pluck up hostages as ransom to bully other tribes into submission.

Thuggory found it amusing that nothing short of such a threat could unify all the tribes that would otherwise be busy fighting amongst themselves. Nobody has made a move against the Hooligans yet, but everyone knew that everyone else was coordinating and planning. Berk was once the armpit of the Archipelago but had become a real and present threat that could not be ignored.

"Ah, well put," Stoick said as a few others joined him: Spitelout, his all-brawn-no-brain son Snotlout, and Gobber. "That's actually one thing I wish to trade with you. We have more than meat and leather to barter. We would like to teach you our… _mystical_ ," Stoick made a sarcastic gesture with his arms, "dragon-taming powers."

"Oh _really_ ," Thuggory sneered, stepping up to his father's side. "Just like _that_? You just want to- MMMPH!"

Mogadon put a large, meaty hand over his son's mouth. "Let me handle this." Turning to Stoick, he said, "Just like _That_?! You just wanna share your dragon-taming secrets with us?!"

Thuggory rolled his eyes. _I could have said that just as well as him._

Stoick shrugged. "Well, to be honest, all I do is watch it all happen and try to keep the teenagers from blowing up the whole island. Really, it's Hiccup who's done the heavy lifting, so to speak. C'mon, son. Show 'em what ya got!"

Every Meathead's jaw dropped to the docks as a black reptilian head peeked up from the edge of the boat, followed by a sleek black body that prowled up to the gangplank and down to the dock. Under its wing, that little Fishbone of an heir who _must_ have been adopted by Stoick from some famished lowlife struggled to stay on his feet as the dragon effortlessly tugged him along by the leather strap spanning from its neck to his wrist.

Weapons were unsheathed and raised without conscious thought.

Stoick stepped forward and held up placating hands. "Hey, calm down, people. If you don't want to learn how to tame dragons, then we will leave. If you want us to stay, how about you learn to not be so twitchy, eh?"

Hiccup found some stable footing and gave a hard tug on the leash. The leather strap creaked under the tension and the dragon halted to look back at him.

"Sit!" he commanded.

To everyone's surprise, the dragon obeyed. It didn't lunge to maul the nearest person, snap its teeth, steal food, or burn homes to ash. It just sat there with half-lidded eyes, contentedly receiving praise and a shoulder rub from Hiccup.

"Call it a peace offering," Stoick said. "As our closest neighbor and one with whom we've been on good terms for many years, we would like to teach you everything we know about dragons. Show them what you can do, son!"

Hiccup said, "Toothless, heel," and the pair strode past the group of dumbstruck Meatheads. "Good boy!" he cooed again and the dragon stooped down to accept some scratches on the head. "Now sit. Shake. Lay. Roll over. _Good boy!_ Who's a good boy? _You're_ a good boy! Yes you are!"

Hiccup looked up with a proud smile on his face to see a crowd stunned into silence. For a while, the only sound was someone's stifled cough.

He deflated a little at the sight. "Aw, c'mon, guys, ya gotta admit that was pretty cool."

Tuffnut shoved Hiccup aside. "That's all yak wash. Here, lemme show 'em something I've been working on. Hey, T, play dead!" He then thrust an imaginary sword into the dragon's neck. The dragon reared back with a yelp and fell to its back before nuzzling Tuffnut to receive some praise and a head-rub.

Finally, chief Mogadon found his tongue. "By the gods, you really have tamed dragons." His face instantly turned stern. "And you claim to want to teach us to do this, too? Why? Explain yourself. Your dragons give you power over others. Why would you share that power instead of hoarding your dragons."

"We haven't been _hoarding_ them!" Hiccup shouted out.

Stoick held a hand up at his son. "Mogadon, the boy is right. We're not hoarding them. They flocked to our island all on their own. It's been almost a year, but it took us that long to come to terms with the situation. As for why we would want to see dragon riders elsewhere besides Berk, well, that's a question that has already answered itself. Best not to get in a fight with the entire world. So, we want to give what we've been given. You're the first because, of all the tribes within a couple days of sailing, you're the least likely to stab us in the back. Take that as the most massive compliment I have ever given anyone."

"And why would they flock to you?" Mogadon asked. "Why would they submit to you? DIdja figure out some sort of extract or just beat them into submission?"

Stoick chuckled as his large hand stifled whatever retort Hiccup had to say. "Funny story behind that. The raids were caused by a massive dragon that lived in a mountain at the dragon nest. Oh, we found the nest, by the way. And took out this dragon. I took one of the teeth as a souvenir."

The black dragon snorted. Stoick rolled his eyes. "Alright, Hiccup and Toothless took it out, but I helped."

Mogadon followed Stoick's gesturing arm to his longboat. The bowsprit wasn't the usual wooden beam but a long, ivory… well, tooth, supposedly.

Thuggory's mouth dropped. "That's a _tooth_?! It's… _huge_!"

"Aye," Stoick said. "And heavy. This is one of the smaller ones. Took only half a day to dig it out of the gums. I didn't dare try to tackle any of the molars."

Mogadon shook his head. "This must be a trick. A painted beam or something."

The Hooligan chuckled at that. "Take an ax to it and see which chips first. If ya want to see the beast with your own eyes, we could sail out now and be there tomorrow morning. I can tell you that beast must have been controlling the dragons. Nowadays, they've been as peaceable as can be. Most of them."

Mogadon grunted. Thuggory looked over at the black dragon, now happily sitting, hunched over, leaning into Hiccup's scratches along the eye ridges and at the base of those… ear fins. He took a step closer and the dragon locked eyes and curled its lips to reveal just how inaccurate its name really was, sending a chill down his spine.

"Easy there, Bud," Hiccup said to his dragon. To Thuggory, he said, "He can't remove his fangs and claws, so it wouldn't be fair to demand you disarm yourself just to pet him, but if you take your hand off the pommel of your sword, it would ease both of us."

Thuggory scowled. He didn't want to pet the stupid thing. He wanted to _ride_ it! Into battle! Now that dragons were no longer sieging his village and could be tamed, the possibilities…

He noticed a foul smell and saw the dragon right in front of him, tail turned, squatting to dump its dung in front of his feet. The dragon gave him a flat stare before trotting back to Hiccup, ignoring the reprimands of "Bad dragon! Very bad boy!"

"Then we have a deal?"

Stoick's inquiry jerked Thuggory's attention back to the negotiating chieftains. Mogadon clasped Stoick's outstretched hand. A deal had been struck

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The following days blurred by. The Meathead tribe was hesitant to accept aid from Berk in learning how to tame the dragons. Well, Hiccup always insisted it was befriending, not taming.

There was no other choice than to go along with it and listen to Hiccup spread his "give the dragons a fish instead of an ax" doctrine. Killing Stoick and Hiccup would not have ended the threat of an island full of dragon riders. That would only end in a massive Viking-dragon retaliation. The Meatheads could have sent the Hooligans off, but then they would just go on to introduce dragons to other tribes as pets and companions instead of enemies and prey to hunt and trap. Then the Meathead tribe would be left at a disadvantage and that would not be acceptable at all.

That didn't make it any less embarrassing to be taking lessons and reprimands from Hiccup. He practically squealed with glee as he showed people how to stoop their posture, turn sideways, and close their eyes to help ease the dragon. In that time, some dragons flew in and the children were naturally the most successful in winning their trust, being too young to know fear. One Deadly Nadder even stayed for a whole day before flying off, but Hiccup said he was very confident the dragon would return.

There was more to all this than met the eyes, though. Thuggory was certain of this. So certain, in fact, that he was willing to climb the icy side of a house to try to make a deal with the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.

Thuggory made one last jump off an open shutter and heaved himself onto the roof. Below, in the village square, a large bonfire roared with Hooligans and Meatheads gathered around. Thuggory's target, though, was perched on the apex of the roof, looking down the slant, eyes forever fixed on its rider.

Thuggory cleared his throat as he didn't want to startle the beast. The only indication that his approach had not gone unnoticed was a very subtle twitch of the dragon's ear fins.

"I'd like to have a word with you," he said.

The dragon did absolutely nothing.

The heir climbed up to the apex and sat down next to the dragon. That in itself was an impressive feat. He had seen so much death and destruction from these creatures and even killed a few. However, Hiccup's words could not be contested. The nature of the dragons has changed drastically ever since the raids ended. Besides, a sufficient degree of necessity could always overpower any reservations.

"So that's the way you're gonna play this, eh?" He looked up and behind him and pointed. "Hey, look! A shooting star!"

Toothless flicked its eyes to Thuggory and craned its neck to look. There was nothing special to see. A cloud had recently moved in to block out the usual twinkling stars. Aside from their joy at seeing the stars - Night Furies especially - Thuggory had learned that dragons were mesmerized by shooting stars.

The dragon gave Thuggory a flat look and thwacked him with the tail for the deception.

Thuggory chuckled. "Call it revenge for you and Hiccup deceiving us. Most of us still think you're just some dumb animal Hiccup trained to do tricks and fly him around. I don't think there are many of us who realize that you can actually think and understand what we're saying. Gods, I don't see how, but you've responded to enough of my off-hand comments about Hiccup that there's little room for doubt."

Though he was expecting it, it was still strange to see the dragon stare at him with an all-too-human incredulous look.

"Oh, c'mon," Thuggory scoffed, "If Hiccup's said anything about me, I'm sure it was far from flattering. Given the way he's been treated in the past, I can't blame him. I'm no simpleton, though, so let's not be insulting here, alright?"

The dragon huffed and went back to staring at its rider.

Thuggory cleared his throat and said, "I can certainly agree with the reasoning behind this charade you're putting on. Hiccup drools like a rabid dog at the idea of getting others to like dragons as companions instead of enemies. With the history your kind and mine have had for the past few centuries, it would be hard to see past the fangs and fire without dumbing you down in our eyes."

Thuggory met the dragon's studious stare and forced himself to chuckle against how those eyes made him feel so naked.

"I've got to hand it to you, though. Watching you light Snotlout's ass on fire really made my day. And that bit where you curled up to lick your crotch to appear more animalistic was really classy. You didn't have to go so overboard with that, though, but I should be thanking you. I had my eyes set on Drifa, but after seeing the way she looked at you while you were, umm, cleaning yourself… I didn't know she was that way. So thanks for exposing her true nature."

The dragon snorted and went back to looking at its rider below.

"I'd like to ask a favor of you, but it will benefit you and Hiccup too. Well, alright, let's call it what it is. I'd like to propose a deal."

Toothless continued to just stare at Hiccup, but Thuggory knew it was listening. He couldn't quite place why; he just… knew.

"Soon, I will be the chief of my tribe. Hiccup told us about how the loss of the Red Death, though unquestionably very good, left a void in some dragons, a longing to belong to something bigger, to have some purpose in life, some obstacle to overcome beyond the drudgery of everyday life. You have that little fishbone, for example-"

Thuggory held up an arm to deflect the dragon's tail. Rubbing his smarting wrist, he said, "Old habits die hard, what can I say. You gotta admit, keeping his reckless arse in one piece is more than enough to occupy your every waking moment."

The dragon snorted and rolled its eyes at Thuggory, who grinned mischievously. He heard some stories about Hiccup and Toothless. Once, Toothless got in a fight with a Whispering Death, but was grounded as it wouldn't allow Hiccup to work the tailfin. Hiccup didn't like that, so his solution was stupidly simple.

He jumped off the edge of a cliff.

So just plain stupid, then.

It worked, though. The dragon felt compelled to jump after and catch him and they proceeded to kick the Whispering Death's butt. Those spiny things couldn't fly for shite.

"We too have noticed a void in our lives ever since the Red Death fell. Though we never ceased in complaining about the dragon raids and how you beasties gave us so many hardships and empty bellies, training to survive the dragon attacks and cleaning up the mess you guys left behind kept us busy. Now, though," Thuggory shrugged his shoulders, "We're getting restless. Currently, we're content with our peace agreements with nearby tribes. Starting some sort of conquest effort now would be very unwise. We need someone to fight, though. Skulls to crack."

Toothless turned to face Thuggory and crouched low, tail in the air, postured as if to pounce. Thuggory held up placating hands.

"I'll pass, thank you very much. My father always told me, 'Son, if you're not confident you can win a fight, then for Thor's sake keep your arse out.'"

That seemed to mollify the dragon.

"It's funny to think about. In years past, Hiccup was just an insignificant fishbone who quickly learned that fighting back only made his beatings all the worse. Now, though…" Thuggory sucked in a deep lungful of the crisp, cold air. "Now he's the most powerful Viking in the Archipelago, when you think about it. Politics be damned, he could order you to tear my throat out and you'd do it without hesitation. I know I have my faults, but I'm not so headstrong that I can't recognize that."

He looked over at Toothless to see no outward sign of acknowledgment. That was to be expected, though. Down below, Vikings from both tribes were gathered around the bonfire. Hiccup and Glam, the Meathead's head scribe, had a Hnefatafl board set up on the ground and a lantern for light. A cauldron of stew hung next to the bonfire to stay warm and had emptied significantly, but it still had enough for people to come back for a second helping. And a third. And fourth.

"Anyway," Thuggory went on, feeling a little uneasy, "We both have a need that the other can fulfil. We released our caged dragons. I can tell that _that_ was the sole driving motivation for Hiccup. I can promise you he'll have significantly less success on most other islands. On top of that, there's still lots of dragon trappers about. More now than before you nixed the Red Death, actually. I get the sense that you dragons aren't exactly the most altruistic - and I bet that's one reason you absolutely adore Hiccup - but surely you are less than pleased that dragons are being hunted down, trapped, caged for entertainment, used for gladiatorial fights, Gronckles used for smelting iron ore, then their body parts harvested and sold."

Thuggory pulled some jerky from his pocket and tore off a piece. Toothless sniffed and accepted it for himself.

"So if you're as smart as I think you are, you can see where I'm going. If dragons could do it alone, they would have already, which is why they haven't. Hiccup certainly ain't gonna lead such an effort because," he made a face of mock-horror, "that would involve fighting. Us Meatheads could use some action. Liberating caged dragons and whacking some trappers certainly provides plenty of that. We'd need dragons to take us there and help us fight, though."

Thuggory took a deep lungful of air and slowly let it out. "Me especially, when I become chief. I'll need a dragon, a big one. One that is strong and fearless and inspires respect. I'm sure you bump into other dragons all the time. Put in a good word for me."

Down below, Hiccup got up and stretched. Toothless rose up to shadow him. The dragon crouched to leap down, but it paused, turned to Thuggory, and took a step to put them nose-to-nose. Thuggory stood his ground, unsure of the situation. He was certain he read the dragon right and that at least a good chunk of what he said was understood.

The dragon made a move and Thuggory flinched, but it was just a tongue to his cheek. The dragon then gave a significant look at his rider and then back to Thuggory with bared teeth.

The message was loud and clear. _I'll see what I can do, but I promise you will regret crossing my rider._

Thuggory nodded in understanding. "Pair me with a fearsome dragon who's restless for some action and I swear on my life that I will not betray the trust you and Hiccup place on me."

Toothless shoved its nose right into Thuggory's neck and took a couple deep inhales. It then chuffed and spun around to leap down to Hiccup, sliding right back into its routine of a dumb animal oozing all over its beloved master and slurping stew out of any bowls that weren't empty.

It was a new world, Thuggory realized. Everything anyone has ever taken for granted has changed and that scared him. He would soldier on, though. That's what Meatheads do.

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In a small clearing at the edge of a forest, a dragon lay sprawled out. She let out a cavernous yawn and stretched out languidly. It was fun enough, but she hoped there would be more.

All she was looking for was some excitement in what had become a dull and predictable life ever since that demonic queen was killed and the mind snare dissolved away. Granted, any life other than that mindless thralldom was far better, but this land-strider was supposed to be able to offer some challenges that would make life more interesting.

Said land-strider grunted as he tried in vain to wiggle out from under her. Again.

Finding him wasn't difficult. The black dragon who called himself Toothless conveyed to her the color of the land-strider's eyes, his scent, and other signatures that distinguished him from the others.

When she first found him, she buzzed her stubby wings and gently landed on the ground in front of him, casually sniffing. The land-strider had frowned, full of disappointment. He wanted a dragon, sure, but some other species. A larger dragon, with longer wings, a body more sinuous instead of bulbous, maybe one who could belch out a cone of fire instead of globs of molten rock. Better yet, one that could light its entire body on fire.

 _Oh, how dull_ , the dragon thought.

The land-strider whined and snorted and stomped, exasperation clear to see. He even did that thing where he thought with his lips to curse the name of Toothless.

Big mistake.

The next instant he was flat on his back. The dragon bounced back and sat down, which looked very similar to standing up, given her short legs.

The land-strider sprang to his feet and drew out a shiny claw. He'd fought dragons before, killed some, even. However, a dragon under the mind snare of the demonic queen and solely focused on stealing food was far different than one in full control of her mind and body. Unaware of this, the land-strider rushed forward to show the dragon who was in charge.

Big mistake.

So now she lay sprawled on top of him, gently licking the dirt and grass stains from her claws. It was a fun tussle. She ate his shiny claw and spat out the molten slag. The land-strider was bruised and battered, but he would be fine. Mostly. In theory.

The dragon finally buzzed her stubby wings and hopped back to allow the land-strider to get up. He stood there, panting heavily, staring at her with a little more respect than before.

Finally, he held out his hand and turned his head away, just like Toothless and his land-strider had trained him.

 _Good_ , she thought. _I like this one. He's a fast learner._

The boulder dragon pressed her muzzle against the outstretched hand. After a moment, they drifted apart and stared at each other.

The dragon coughed up half a fish at the land-strider's feet and a look of disgust washed over his face.

 _This is going to be_ so _much fun!_


End file.
